GAINESVILLE – A little bit of good news came out of this morning’s Gainesville City Council work session: one element of the next property tax bill sent out by the city will not increase the amount the city collects.
City Manager Bryan Lackey told city council members that he would soon be bringing the city’s Fiscal Year 2021 General Government budget to them for approval. “Two weeks from today I’ll come before you to present our budget for FY2021…there will be one public hearing because we’re going to do a full roll back of the General Fund millage rate.”
Lackey said specifics of the new budget are still being determined, but a full roll back of the millage rate means any increase in property valuations made by the Hall County Tax Assessor’s will be offset by a decrease in the millage rate.
“I don’t know those numbers just yet,” Lackey told council, “Jeremy (Perry, Gainesville Chief Financial Officer) is still fine-tuning those numbers just a little bit.”
The lone public hearing on the General Government budget will happen June 16th at the city council’s voting session, at which time the council will most likely vote on whether or not to adopt the budget as presented.
Property tax bills sent to city property owners are comprised of several different tax elements: the General Government millage rate (currently 1.322 mils) mentioned by Lackey which funds general government operations as well as debt retirement; plus a millage rate for Fire Services, Parks and Recreation, and the city school system.
